Child death in foster care causes First Nations outcry
Twice in six months, children from the Sturgeon Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan have died in foster care under suspicious circumstances. The most recent case, that of a 22-month-old child, has prompted calls for a public inquiry, according to this CBC report. The little boy, Evander Lee Daniels, drowned in a bathtub and also had been scalded, according to this earlier CBC piece. watch a video, here.

Some Wind River Reservation residents told to seek high ground during floods
Even though floodwaters are receding in central Wyoming, residents in the Wind River Indian Reservation community of Sharp Nose are being told to seek higher ground because of rain and snow last night. With snow falling at about an inch an hour, authorities feared more flooding along the Wind River, according to the Casper (Wyo.) Star Tribune, here.

New dorm goes up at Crazy Horse Memorial
The nearly-completed Crazy Horse Student Living and Learning Center was open to the public yesterday. The $2.5 million dorm will house the Summer University Program at Crazy Horse Memorial, sanctioned by the University of South Dakota’s Department of American Indian Studies, according to this Rapid City (S.D.) Journal story by Tyler Jerke.

Cape Wind opponents see parallels with gulf oil catastrophe
Indian Country Today’s Gale Courey Toensing wrote here last week about the massive wind-power project off the coast of Massachusetts, which is vehemently opposed by the Mashpee and Aquinnah Wampanoag nations. Opponents say the mitigation opposed for the Cape Wind project is akin to the safety measures that so badly failed on the BP rig now spewing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Fort Niagara adds Native American interpreters for truer history lesson
Every summer, Fort Niagara in New York hires history lovers and actors from Niagara University to portray characters who might have populated the region, and to explain its history to tourists. This year, those history interpreters include Jordan Smith, a Niagara Falls Native American educator, in the role of a Mohawk Indian, and Brenda Patterson, who is Tuscaroran and plays the role of a Seneca woman. The Mohawk and Seneca tribes are part of the Iroquois Confederacy. Read more here in the Niagara Gazette.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Aquinnah Wampanoag, BP oil spill, Cape Wind, Crazy Horse Memorial, Crazy Horse Student Living and Learning Center, Eastern Shoshone, First Nations, Fort Niagara, foster care, Gulf oil disaster, Interior Department, Iroquois Confederacy, Mashpee Wampanoag, Mohawk, Northern Arapaho, Oneida, Saskatchewan, Sturgeon Lake First Nation, Tuscarora, University of South Dakota Department of American Indian Studies, Wind River, Wind River Indian Reservation

Even though Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has approved the Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound, foes of the giant offshore wind power project say they won’t give up.

Those foes include Wampanoag tribes, who objected to the project because it will interfere with sunrise ceremonies off Mashpee.

As Indian Country Today’s Gale Courey Toensing writes here:

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe of Cape Cod and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) on Martha’s Vineyard have vigorously opposed the project. The wind energy plant would obscure their view of the rising sun in ceremony, and the Sound, which was once dry land, is where their ancestors lived and were buried. Both nations have urged the secretary to require Cape Wind to relocate the project a few miles further offshore where they would be out of sight.

Those objections remain, even though Salazar says the size of the project has been reduced, to 130 turbines, and steps will be taken to mitigate their visibility.

Salazar’s decision is “a federal embarrassment,” Buddy Vanderhoop, a Wampanoag tribal member and commercial fisherman, tells the Boston Herald, here.

“It’s a slap in the face to all the tribes all over the U.S. who are backing us, and all of the people who make their living” on the waters that would be affected, he says.

And Audra Parker, executive director of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, says that “the fight is far from over. It will ultimately be decided in a court – and based on facts, not politics.”

The Wampanoag, along with the Alliance, are preparing a legal challenge.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, Aquinnah Wampanoag, Cape Wind, Martha's Vineyard, Mashpee Wampanoag, U.S. Interior Department, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Wampanoag, Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head, Wind power

First Nations vow that pride will be their Olympics legacy
Although there has been a lot of controversy regarding First Nations and the Vancouver Oympics, Justin George, chief of the Tsleil-Waututh, says the ultimate legacy will be pride, Canadian Press reports here. “The level of participation hands down is going to be the legacy in that it’s given us the opportunity to educate the world (about) who we are,” says George. The Tsleil-Waututh are one of the four bands on whose original territories the games are being held.

Deadline for Cobell settlement resolution is pushed back
TGTBT, as the shorthand goes. Too good to be true. The deadline for the necessary congressional approval of the multi-billion-dollar settlement in the landmark Cobell case over mismanaged Indian trust money has been pushed back to Feb. 28, according to this Indian Country Today story. After decades of mismanagement and squandered funds, another few weeks probably doesn’t matter. But still.

Interior secretary calls summit with tribes over Cape Cod wind project
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has scheduled a meeting for Wednesday in Washington with proponents of a wind power project off Cape Cod, the Martha’s Vineyard Gazette reports here. Opponents of the project also will be there, including members of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe. Last week, a ruling found that the project would interfere with the park’s traditional religious use of the site.

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire to save Council Oaks Tree
The historic Council Oaks Tree at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire won’t have to be chopped down to make way for a new student union after all. The tree is on the school seal, and the original – the present one is a replacement – is believed to be the site of peace talks between the Dakota Sioux and Ojibwe tribes, the AP reports here.

A little haggis with your fry bread?
We can’t top this BBC lede, so we’ll just repeat it verbatim: An extraordinary link between Scotland and a Native American Indian tribe is set to take centre stage at an International Clan gathering. Get the story here.

Gwen Florio

Tags: 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Aquinnah Wampanoag, buffalo post, Cherokee, Cobell v. Salazar, Council Oaks Tree, Dakota Sioux, Elouise Cobell, First Nations, Native American news, Ojibwe, Tsleil-Waututh, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire